Empower, resist, transform. A collection of essays

This essay collection highlights how women facing criminalisation and gender based violence are repeatedly failed by society.

Helen Mills, Rebecca Roberts and Laurel Townhead describe the shortcomings of criminal justice approaches that often replicate and reinforce inequalities rather than tackle the root causes of harm and violence. The document offers a critical and gendered analysis to the challenges of radically scaling back criminal justice. It also includes a copy of the 'Call to Action' issued by the Centre and the charity, Women in Prison.

This work is part of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies' Justice Mattersinitiative, motivated by the belief that the United Kingdom’s over reliance on policing, prosecution and punishment is socially harmful, economically wasteful, and prevents us from tackling the complex problems our society faces in a sustainable, socially just manner.